The devil in the details

Saturday morning , and another weigh in

Me- DOWN 1.4
Nick- UP 5.4
Bob- dead even

Yes, in spite the incident with doughnuts and caramel apples last weekend I lost. Why ? Because following the Weight Watchers points system works. There is no forbidden food . You can eat anything, but just not in the same quantity you used to. Even Carmel apples, Snickers Bars and Birthday cake fir into the plan.

Fitting into the plan is the reason Nick gained . We are following the program without joining , which is as we did it before. It's not that I have anything against the meetings, but with our situation of one car, unpredictable commitments with ministry and odd work times, there is no way we could commit to a definite meeting time. Online allows you to report in and log in your food and activity, but if you know how to calculate points and can discipline yourself to record them on your own, there is little reason to formally join. Unless you like the perks that come with weight loss rewards( magnets, pins, etc.) Plus the system they are using now is called Momentum, which is different from 123 points, and if I Joined I would have to follow that system. So we work alone with 123, but I think I may have miscalculated Nick's points. According the the old formula, so many points are allowed for current weight, age, sex , activity and so forth. Following the formula , Nick comes in with needing 49 points per day ! Somewhere I thought I remembered reading that all points were capped at 44 points no matter what age, weight and so on  ( and no lower than 22 per day no matter what).  I factored in 45 points for Nick, and I am wondering if this is perhaps too much. I am going to drop him to 40 this week and see if this helps. He is sticking faithfully to the program, so it is no fault of his. At least he does not get scale anxiety when he weighs in - to him it's just what we do on Saturday morning.

As for me, I am really happy with how it is working for me . It's funny but no matter what I try, I keep coming back to Weight Watchers in some form, because it works !

Early weigh in

Going to have 3 days of visiting pumpkin farms, cemeteries and shrines, and we know eating is going to be a bit crazy so we decided to weigh in a day early

Me- DOWN 1.4
Nick DOWN 3.4
Bob DOWN 0.2

Good thing is that even if I blow it this week( will probably happen with Carmel apples and pizza) , I am pretty sure I now know what is going to work best for my body and I can get back on track easily. It's a good feeling .

Now off to enjoy for festivities of fall !

If it's Saturday, it's weigh in !

After a week of Weight Watchers 123 points, weigh in

Me- DOWN 1.4
Nick- exactly the same
Bob- DOWN 1.4

Lather, rinse, repeat !

Seems there are new laws of the universe

Another week down, and we come to the official season of fall. Bring on the colors, the crisp cool nights , the smells of fireplaces used for the first time this season and the sounds of geese flying overhead !

I admire the geese. They hang together in a formation, and instinctively know exactly which way to go  to get to their desired environment. Something deep within them tells them what they need to know and what to do. We humans require maps and the services of others to get where we want to go . I think geese may be my new weight loss hero ! Anything that  knows what to do and how to do it is my weight loss hero these days .

Our week was more settled, eating was back to predictable, and I switched myself and Nick to a meal plan of more focus on protein than on carbs . I also kept my intake to 1500 calories or less for 6 days out of 7. Sunday was a celebration of one of the 8 holidays I observe, and there was cheese, grapes and wine involved. A LOT of cheese, but there were 6 days of 1500 calorie eating and healthy habits to offset it. Sleepwise , it was a very bad week for me with a lot of tensions and anxiety. My youngest sister has been having female troubles- in the form of a heavy period for 25 days with a lot of tissue passing. She went to the ER and they found a mass on her uterus. Further tests revealed that is is a fibroid tumor, she was given hormones, but it did not stop the bleeding. She is currently going through a medical roller coaster because of her insurance, where they will not do anything surgically to remove the tumor until she undergoes genetic counciling to see what is the best treatment course . This is insane on several levels- first , she has had a tubal 15 years ago and here are no children in her future. Second, while family history may point clues, her bloodwork and biopsy's will show if she herself has cancer ( a possibility with fibroids and a strong possibility with our family history), and the rest is just basic CYA on the insurer's part. Third, she cannot be seen by the counselor till November, and she is STILL bleeding.She is looking for another doctor, fighting with her insurance, stressing , and I have been trying to help her with my own practices. At least she is now feeling well enough to do something to just enjoy life for an evening now at least- they went to a concert for the evening and got a much needed mental health break.

So, this morning we stepped on the scale

Me- UP 1.4
Nick - UP 1.2
Bob- DOWN 0.8

Can I scream ???According to the science of weight loss, Nick and I should be losing, but gained. Then again, according to the old rules of intelligence, my sister should have gone in for medical treatment and had the bleeding stopped, so obviously common sense is no longer applicable on a couple of fronts. Good news for Bob though- not only did he lose, but he had a health care screening exam and the preliminary tests show that he has dropped his blood pressure again. The results of his bloodwork will be in three weeks from now.

Weight wise, I think i am going back to what we started with at the beginning of this journey- Weight Watchers 123 points.You are assigned a certain level of points per day according to your weight, gender, height , age and activity level. You need to get in 2 healthy fats, 2 dairy, 3 fruits whole grains, lean meats  and 8 glasses of water. Points are calculated according to calories fat and fiber. I stopped doing the program in favor of focusing on other health goals like clean eating, less chemicals and more natural ingredients, and it seems ever since I have been struggling. So starting today, I will meet my health goals, drink my water( not a change at all) and consume my 28 points per day. Bob gets 35 and Nick gets a whopping 49 per day !

Fingers crossed, shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone...onward and upward !!

Illogical, but all mine.

It's been a busy week here . I think I am going to be doing a post per week  for a while, because there are just not enough hours in the day anymore !

Last Sunday while over at my Mom's we played Karaoke, and it seems that my mom responds to music. Through chatting with my sister, there came the idea to get her to hear as much music from when she was a teen as possible, and because she and Tim have been dealing with her physical needs, I was sort of put to task to find as many Youtube videos of these songs as possible, and post them to my facebook so they could play them for her to hear. Result was she started smiling, dancing with the two of them, and eating and drinking  voluntarily. These last two have been a real challenge with mom, and she would go for 4 or 5 days with just a sip of water or two bites. ( She is also dealing with depression it seems) . Music has the power to heal, and the right kind of music can serve as a life raft at times. I pulled from my memory, I searched billboard lists, and for a while I felt like I was living in the 50's, but mom was responding and that was all that mattered ! What drugs have not been able to accomplish, Elvis and Connie Francis could.

As a result, I think I did more sitting on my butt than anything else this week ( researching is not an aerobic activity), salads went out the door, water went out the door, sleep went out the door and there were two meals of carry out pizza because life just got busy. So with this , how did weigh in go ????

Me- DOWN 1.0
Nick - UP 1.4
Bob- UP 0.4

Yep- my body makes absolutely no sense. Eat healthy, limit portions, exercise and gain weight. Toss it out the window , be a slug , eat junk and lose weight. Seriously though, once again it points to the fact that my hormones are more in control of my weight than anything else. The guys, being normal male type people, not dealing with PCOS, have bodies that operate in the way normal bodies do, and such a week brings a gain. Mine is at the complete mercy of an endocrine system that makes no sense. Ah well....

Will be interesting to see what this week brings. I am going up to see mom today, with the intention of getting her to cha cha with us. My mom was a dancing fool when she was young, and perhaps this will spark something more.

Yes, I am still alive

Contrary to popular opinion, I have not fallen off the face of the earth ! Still here, still staying on program, still exercising when I can and just keeping up with the circus that has become life .

On the weight loss front, we all experienced a gain last week for reasons I am not sure of.
Me- UP 1.6
Nick UP 2.4
Bob UP 0.4

It was a disastrous week for exercise, but a week of a whole lot of activity, battling the foe known as ringworm. It seems that he spread the word to his fellow parasitic insect friends and this past weekend we discovered that we are also dealing with lice. Lovely ! I am having such a close relationship with my vacuum and washer that I am suspecting that I am having an affair with them. Yeah...that's the spirit ! An affair sounds so much more exotic than slave to the electronic devices that may once again make my life happy and peaceful. It seems that these came back with us from Gatlinburg via a hat that my husband bought. ( I am beginning to feel like I am the Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce's worst nightmare !). It's not the fault of the city, but simply a fact of modern life that when you go to an area with a lot of people coming and going, things can happen. Lice are attracted to anything that is warm blooded, and they really do not care about anything beyond that fact. Heavily visited areas are like the endless buffet to them.

So between school and endless over the top housework, I have spent my free time sneaking in what exercise I can with my little pedal device and walking, doing reiki work, checking in on facebook and sort of living off fish sandwiches. Most lunches have been a tossed salad with tuna or moc crab, dinner is a salmon burger or grilled tuna steak on a Healthy life bun with veggies on the side, overnight oats for breakfast, a half cup of homemade ice cream for afternoon snack ( I have an ice cream maker and I have been playing with some recipes) and plain yogert with frozen blueberries and granola in the evening. Kind of boring, but it works under the time constraints of the now.

Do you have any Labor Day plans ? We are going to get together with my family and I will hopefully get to see one of my long term best friends. We were very close in high school and drifted apart when I went to college. We reconnected on facebook, and it will be a lot of fun to see him face to face. Planning on getting a lot of pictures and doing my best to stay on program under some real wild card circumstances. Hope you all have a good one, what ever your plans !

Weigh in, and a light at the end of the tunnel

Just a quick post - busy day today ! However, it is weigh in day, and time to see how eating fish works...or does not. We simply switched to eating fish instead of any other kind of meat this week.

Me- DOWN 4.8
Nick - DOWN 3.4
Bob - DOWN 1.8

Fish does indeed work ! Not shellfish like shrimp, lobster or real crab but things like cod, flounder, turbot, salmon and so forth. One reason may be that it is naturally lower in calories than other meats. Another may be that it is high quality protein , and in the case of ocean fish contain a higher level of iodine. This nutrient supports the thyroid, which if it is sluggish , can make weight loss very difficult. One of our primary sources of iodine is iodized salt ( NOT sea salt) , and when you start cutting salt from your diet, you also rob your body of iodine. It's a catch 22 situation.

Obviously going to continue doing the same this week , and I will get back to posting meals and pictures. I wanted to wait to see if this indeed worked !

Post veggie week weigh in

Week of eating low fat, mostly veggies

Me- UP 2.4
Nick - UP 2.0
Bob - UP 0.4

I read something last week about new research showing a breakfast of mainly fat, like bacon and eggs, speeds the metabolism and helps weight loss. Going to give this a try, because low fat, high fiber is DEFINITELY not working. For any of us.

Weigh in, groceries and new food find

Once again, I step on the scale and scratch my head. Three people eating the same things, three different results

Me- stay the same ( I have a suspicion what may be the cause)
Nick- DOWN 4.2 ( with absolutely no exercise whatsoever)
Bob UP 0.6 ( with all the carting of groceries up the stairs in the heat and a boatload of walking)

In my case, I absolutely and totally believe it is hormones. I am very close to menopause ( for 3 years now my cycles can come every two weeks, or once every 3 months or skip showing up for 7 months ). One little known issue with menopause( and the number one complaint amongst perimenopausal women) is CONSTIPATION. It has nothing to do with the level of fiber, water, oil or activity, but rather EVERYTHING to do with your progesterone levels. It is exactly the same reason many pregnant women have problems with this ( and then add iron supplements and it is a wonder if you have a BM once a week). Everryone talks about hot flashes, mood swings and night sweats. No one talks about the constipation issue, but 98 percent of women approaching or going through 'The Change" experience it, and it does play havoc with weight loss !

I just got back from grocery shopping, and i am praying for a refrigerator with elastic walls to hold all the produce ! I am going to have to start using this weeks haul of tomatoes, squash, eggplant and more as decorations . One of the things I picked up is an Opa squash and White Canadian Eggplant and some eggplant that is white and purple striped. These are going to be fun to play with this week, and i will snap pictures and post recipies.

The rest of the day today is going to be lost to chopping veggies and other household tasks. Tomorrow is a festival of The First Harvest in my spiritual tradition, and I need to get ready .

Weigh in, because it is Saturday

For some reason ( hmmm- what could it be ???) , I am really tired and kind of on automatic pilot. I do think being tired has a lot to do with harming weight loss, so the results of the week seem to be as expected. I am not stress eating- in fact there is a lot of time I am not eating at all because of the busy-ness and stress.

Me- UP 1.0
Nick - DOWN 2.6 ( apparently you can eat 4 boxes of Popsicles, lay and moan AND lose weight)
Bob- DOWN 0.2

Next week better be calmer, or I will figure out where it is sleeping and put an end it it's misery !!!!

Weigh in- again

Weigh in
UP ...I repeat UP 2.6 pounds.

Bob - UP 1.2
Nick- UP 5.4 lbs

Ah, the power of hormones with PCOS ( for me)...... They may make me gain, but they are not going to get me in the shape to be able to tackle this terrain


I wonder if I can stab the scale with my trekking poles ????

Post vacation weigh in

Weekly weigh in time

Me- DOWN 1.2
Bob -DOWN 2.8
Nick - DOWN 1.4

Yesterday was a day of grocery shopping, laundry and in general getting back to the swing of life. I noticed something about our area that is radically different from Tennessee. Here, sales tax on non food is 9.5 percent, but food tax is 2.5 percent. Restaurant Tax on average is 8.5 percent. We have numerous grocery stores and close location to many distribution centers, so our food costs are lower. Example- we stopped in a Walmart Super center to get some road snacks in Tennessee. One of the things bought was a pint of organic cherry tomatoes for 3.98. Same thing here is 3.29, or non organic for 99 cents. In our area, Walmart is one of the highest priced places for fresh produce, and they do not do well in our immediate area because there is too much competition from numerous other chains and independent grocers who have much lower prices for fresh fruits and vegetables. Several areas we passed through had few options for grocery shopping, and it seems that if you were living in the area and forced to be on a strict budget, healthy eating may not be something that you could archive. If you have to feed a family of 4 for 125.00 per week or less, and live in an area where your only store is charging 5 dollars a bag for apples and 3 dollars for a bag of carrots, healthy eating is not your first thought when shopping. Not sure what the solution is to this, but it is something to consider when looking at things like childhood obesity , adult obesity and so on.

Thankfully, we are blessed to live in an area with numerous healthy and affordable choices. I was very appreciative of this fact as I filled my cart with things like asparagus, fresh fennel, melons, berries and 3 kinds of lettuce. I was almost giddy with excitement when I made dinner yesterday - roast vegetable, grilled chicken salad with a honey mustard dressing. Yes there are salads available at most places, but they are limited to iceburg lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers. Ours at home contain things with so many other veggies and such dense micro nutrients ! As I made breakfast yesterday Bob commented that even if I had ordered the oatmeal at the Pancake place we ate at on Wednesday , it would be nothing like this , with cranberries, blueberries, pecans and cinnamon. It got me thinking about a wild idea of investing in a small restaurant in a touristy place, and serve jacked up oatmeal, yogert and fruit parfaits, roast veggie salads, hummus and veggie wraps and so forth. Perhaps.....

Today we are going out to test drive my new walking cane ( I have fought this move for a long time , but it is necessary) and shopping for some aqua socks so that we can go to the lake the next available weekend. We made a discovery while walking back and forth from our room to the outdoor pool at our hotel, and that is that none of us can walk on hot surfaces barefoot. Last time we went to a lake it was very painful walking through the hot sand, and aqua socks will allow us to do this in comfort.

Weeks results

Another Saturday and another weigh in. This week I did not count calories, points, watch my intake, exercise, watch sugar grams , fat grams or anything else. I at what I wanted, and tested it energetically for my body. The only exercise I did was the energy medicine protocols that I described earlier this week. Here are the results

Me- DOWN 1.4 pounds
Nick UP 1.4 pounds
Bob DOWN 1.8 lbs

As I said in my previous entry, Nick has kind of been living in a "Lord of the Flies" world at the moment- or like most college freshman who are suddenly away from home and eating according to whatever. I did a few of the routines with Bob this week , as a kind of homework.

My conclusion is this works. It is not that you can eat non- stop junk and do this and lose weight. For one thing in doing this it is very doubtful that you will have any compulsion to eat junk because your body will be balanced. I honestly belive in the case of most overweight people something goes wrong with the energetic framework of their bodies and they no longer assimilate food properly. When food is not assimilated in the right way, the body goes into survival mode and makes you over eat to compensate for the lack. Several things cause us to get out of balance- repetitive movements, emotional shock and a bombardment by electromagnetic frequencies. If you are losing weight using the conventional "eat less move more" model, keep at it. You are one of the lucky people who have not been impacted by these environmental factors. However, if you are doing all the conventional things and the pounds are not moving , perhaps it is time to consider adding something like energy medicine and one of it's protocols ( acupuncture, EFT, Massage therapy , Quantium Touch, Reiki or so forth)

This weeks goals- for me continue on the same path and clean up the "Lord of the Flies" existance that son is in. going to work some energy medicine on him as well.

Weigh in and what if ?

Weigh in

Me DOWN 1.0
Nick UP 2.2
Bob UP 1.4

We have all eaten the same ( guys a little more because the male body requires a few more calories than the female, all moved exactly the same level. ONLY difference is that I have been working with Qigong and Energy medicine on myself, and I lost.

This coming week I am going to try something completely radical. I am going to energy test all food for my body , and no matter what it is follow the results as to my eating it or not. I am abandoning all forms of conventional physical exercise in favor of energy workouts. It is the only way I will know for certain that it works.

I have a theory- and that is obesity is not necessarily cause by substances in foods or the amount of food but rather that it is being caused by living in a world filled with electrical devices. All of these things that make our life so much easier create a kind of electromagnetic pull that throws off our bodies meridian energy. When the meridian energy is altered, the body no longer works in balance. With our energy out of whack in our digestive system, we no longer properly absorb nutrients or process them. Deficiency is the result , and that leads to numerous illnesses, including emotional things like binge eating. Don't think this is so ? Consider how many minutes of your life you spend every day, not in the presence of some electrical device ? There is your alarm clock in your bedroom , lights and perhaps even a tv, radio or computer. In your bathroom is lights and perhaps a battery operated scale or tooth brush. Your kitchen contains a refrigerator, lights, microwave, numerous small appliances , your dining room contains lights and then there are all the devices in your living room. If you are health concious you strap on a Body Bugg or pedometer, go for a run with an MP3 player, cell phone, GPS device or work out with an electrical device ( or at least battery powered read out) device. Computers. cell phones, TV- all of these things operate with electricity and any electrical device has a degree of resonance or electromagnetic field. What if we are all simply environmentally sick ? And if it is energy that is throwing us out of balance, energy can bring us back into balance.

Or so I currently belive

Weigh in

Eat less, move more ...

AND GAIN WEIGHT!!!!!!!

Me- UP 1.6 lbs
Nick - UP 2.8 lbs
Bob - UP 1.6 lbs

A new friend, a new pizza and weigh in

Another good, pain free day, and an increase in activity. We are doing school 3 days a week during the summer, so for two days i get to devote more time to myself. Weekends are still going to be filled with all of the necessary errands and about a thousand commitments. Is it just me or is this summer going to be very busy ?

I my quest for "wings that work" ( I.E. Exercises that will strengthen my muscles enough to allow my joints to be supported enough to move with arthritis and not do further harm) I came across several sites written by physical therapists and the recommendation is stationary bike work as opposed to tread mills, and best exercise is water aerobics. No pool this year, no room for a full bike, so I mentioned to Bob I need a bike that is apartment friendly. He came home with this, my new little friend

It's basically pedals with a frame. All the cardio benefits of a bike without the seat or handles. Very portable and fits nicely in a really cramped space. So with the addition of My Little Friend.my activity for yesterday came out to be this

Exercise
15 minute walk outside( got cut short due to wardrobe malfunction)
50 wall push ups
25 wall slides
40 standing leg abductions
15 counter squats
35 Bridging
30 straight leg raises
20 calf raises
20 Power Knees
40 back kicks
20 isometric chest presses
100 "pull your navel in towards you backbone" thingies ( no idea what they are called, but they
help repair abdominal distasias ( separated ab muscles- thank you two surgeries !)
5 animal frolics (QiGong- an oriental exercise form sort mixing yoga with martial arts)
Qi Gong breathing exercise
cycle 15 minutes ( only because the bike did not enter my life till dinnertime)

For dinner , I made a new pizza- this time with a polenta crust. It turns our that this may be closer to what was actually eaten in earlier times by Italians. Not sure, but it is the best gluten free pizza option I have come across so far !

Polenta Pizza

1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups water
1 c cornmeal
1 T oil
toppings as desired ( here it was mushroom, cheese and sausage)

Bring milk and water to a boil, whisk in cornmeal, stirring
constantly till the mixture is as thick as oatmeal. Remove from
heat and stir in 1 T oil. Spread on a baking sheet to a depth of 1/2
inch, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.Bake at 425 for
25 minutes till it begins to crisp. Prepare toppings( cook your sausage,
vegetables, etc). Place on crust, top with cheese and return to
the oven for 5 minutes, or till the cheese melts.

And another week has completed and it's time for weigh in

Me- UP 0,4
Nick - DOWN 2.8
Bob -DOWN 2.4

Weigh in

Just a quick post

Weigh in for the week

Me DOWN 0.6
Nick UP 3.4
Bob DOWN 3.2

Enjoy the weekend !

Pork chop casserole and weigh in

Last week as I was planning the menu , I was searching for pork recipes to use with the planned purchase of a big pork loin, and suddenly one of the best food related childhood recipes came to mind- Mom's pork chop casserole ! Every time she made it, it was a special event it seems. No real reason why- we would eat pork chops and rice for many other occasions. In fact, for breakfast she often served rice with butter and sugar and milk ( try it sometime- it is yummy !). However , when she combined them in this casserole, it was something special

Mom's Pork Chop Casserole , updated

3 pork loin chops
2 cups brown rice, cooked according to directions
1 c green onions
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped celery
1 carrot, chopped
1 green pepper, cut in rings
3 ripe tomatoes, sliced
1 large onion, cut in rings

In a skillet, brown the pork chops,remove from pan and set aside. Add 1/4 cup of water and saute the celery, carrot and mushroom 5 minutes.
Combine vegetables with cooked rice and green onions. Place in a casserole dish, sprayed with pam. Place pork chops on top of rice mixture
and top each pork chop with slices of tomato, onions and green peppers. Sprinkle with basil if desired. Cover with foil and place in a 350 degree oven for 1 hr.

I served it with roast broccoli and a salad of romaine, watercress, dandelion, grapes and sliced almonds

Weigh in this morning. It seems that gluten free is not doing a lot for my weight, but it is making some pretty unexpected changes in the rest of my body, and I will keep on this way of life. So weight specifics are

Me- DOWN 1.4
Bob- DOWN 0.4
Nick- unknown...still asleep !

The bread, the scale and other things

So how is it going for weight loss, you may ask ? We have been following a nutrient dense diet with doing a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise in some form 6 days a week. Lots of fresh fruits, veggies, lean meats, whole grains, fat free or low fat dairy and healthy oils. Other than fruits, sugars are limited to no more than 13 grams per serving and sodium is in the very low range. Sounds like a formula for success- so how is it manifesting? Nick finally broke the plateau he was stalled at, Bob has begun to lose again but my body is reading things very different. Loss stalled to about a pound or less, then gain, then stall, and gain some more. It seems that I am still losing and gaining the same 5 lbs. This has been going on for 2 years now, mainly because I keep ignoring the needs of my own body type. I drop the vigilance about starch servings and I can literally gain weight eating lettuce. I think I need to have the starch serving recommendations tattooed on my forehead !

Last week I lost 0.2 lbs and this week I gained 1.6 lbs - not a huge amount but I am taking it to be a heads up that I need to change what I am doing. While I am eating very healthy foods, I am eating too many starches for my body. This week I am going to try to drop most of these in favor of other foods. Fruits are good, veggies are good, meat and fats are good, but the starch group leads me into problems. I am not going as drastic as, say Atkins, but I do need to keep the starch servings down to less than 3 per day, and better if it can be kept to 2 and all of those must be whole grains.

It got me to wondering if there has been any serious thought about the connection between PCOS and these starch carbs. What exactly does it? So I hit Google to investigate, and was rewarded with a boatload of pages. It seems the most recent thinking is that PCOS may be a result of underlying gluten intolerance. Wow! It would make perfect sense from my experience. Perhaps if I adopt a gluten free approach to weight loss it might work. I don’t know if it would involve the hidden sources of gluten (such as that in sauces), but rather an elimination of the bigger sources would be enough? It seems that with PCOS eating whole grain, low GI (glycemic index- which means how it impacts your body as a sugar) grains and fruits with fat and protein works best (oatmeal with cottage cheese or nuts, whole grain crackers and nuts and so forth). Fruits should be eaten with protein as well- apples and peanut butter, strawberries and almonds and so forth. For many, the avoidance of fruits high on the GI index such as melons have proven to be helpful, but I don’t believe that has been a factor with me. It does merit testing out if simply cutting back grain serving does not help.

So my current menu is going to look something like this: Breakfast will be cottage cheese and fruit with a serving of granola (made with oatmeal, nuts, healthy oil and honey) or eggs with vegetables. Lunch will be a soup made with beans, meat and vegetables or a salad with meat and beans, and dinner will be meat or beans and vegetables and a starch serving of brown rice, bulgur or one of the healthier pastas. Snacks will be nonfat yogurt and fruit with granola or hardboiled egg and fruit or lunch meat with a veggie. It’s not radically different, but allows me some mental reminders for the nights when the guys really want something more carby for dinner.

So with this knowledge in hand we went grocery shopping and I added butchering to my Mount Chop Me weekly task. Big pork loins, slab of beef and assorted chicken and sausage things were converted into chops, roasts, stir fries and components for soups or casseroles. This week we got a late start due to Bob being called to sing for a funeral Saturday morning. As much as one would like to, you cannot schedule death, but rather life has to be arranged to accommodate it. We did not finish shopping till about 3 pm and once we got home I went into chopping mode. The guys helped put things away, sort through other things and we worked as a team. All the while the clock was ticking, and suddenly it was after 7 ( we normally eat at 5), chopping was not done and dinner was still about an hour off in preparation. We were all starving, so we consented to ordering one of those big round carby cheesy things with tomato sauce, sausage and veggies. It was good and necessary in this case, but I am kind of cringing at how it may affect me at next week’s weigh in. Rather than be upset by it, I am counting my blessings. We have a roof over our heads to store all this good stuff in, we have money and secure employment to finance it with (as a matter of fact Bob just got a raise and a Promotion at his 9-5 pay the bills and insurance job), we all understand why the big round thing was necessary and we have a place that makes a darned good one. I also have a whole week to follow the guidelines my own body has, so it will be a good week !

This may take a while

Woke up this morning to find the power supply on my computer fried, which means I will be out of the water for a little while with posting food pictures and such. Hopefully I can get my nephew to help me pull off the critical data from my hard drive, or things are going to get very interesting her...and not in a good way. Meanwhile, I am going to have to bore the world with my words only...a scary thing ! This was not the way I planned on spending the weekend, to say the least ! Meanwhile I will have to share computer time with Nick and Bob on their machines, remember my passwords and other fancy stuff. Can you feel the love ???

Meanwhile, I an down 1.2 lbs for the week. Nick stayed the same and Bob gained another 2.6 and is NOT a happy camper about it.Another week , another shot at working this program !